[Outlaw Mantis]

You're making the assumption that we would be unaffected by a lack of good mod support. I tried a couple of different versions of PHP7 and get errors everywhere. This is what I get on a thread for example.

(456): vB_BbCodeParser->do_parse('Awesome! And I ...', 0, 1, 1, 1, true, false, 'on_nl2br', false, 1)
#3 /home/username/domainname.com/includes/class_postbit.php(1242): vB_BbCodeParser->parse('Awesome! And I ...', 57, '1', false, NULL, NULL, false, 'on_nl2br')
#4 /home/username/domainname.com/dbtech/thanks/includes/class_postbit.php(177): vB_Postbit_Post->parse_bbcode()
#5 /home/username/domainname.com/includes/class_postbit.php(329): vB_Postbit_Thanks->parse_bbcode()
#6 /home/username/domainname.com/showthread.php(1096): vB_Postbit->construct_postbit(Array)
#7 /home/username/domainname.com/dbseo.php(539): require('/home/username...')
#8 {main}

You can see this is at least partially related to DragonByte's mods. They're essential to my forum, as are a number of other mods I invested into. I don't really mind the fact that a PHP5 site isn't getting the speed boost a PHP7 site would. My board is a small community and runs at a fine speed with PHP5.

I recall hearing about that updated VB4, but I also recall hearing that not everything works. Sure, if it would play nice with my current setup that would be great. But in the meantime the only way around it that I can see is a host that will do PHP5.

This very forum is running vBulletin 3. Think they'll make the jump to the latest vBulletin? I sure as heck wouldn't. I'd rather go with XenForo but I do not want to do that either. My forum works fine. My members are happy. I do sometimes get prodded to move on from vBulletin. And it seems a lot of people at this board would recommend that I stop using vBulletin too. (Well, mostly former vB users who switched to XenForo.)

Originally Posted by djvj

I'm also on Dreamhost and this forced change is messing me up as well. I have so many mods that are only for vb4. I have yet to find a host running older PHP. If you do find one, please post back, otherwise I'm forced to upgrade to vb5 and lose all that work I put into my vb4 forum.

Hostboard, Dreamhost is forcing php 7.3+ in 2 more weeks, which is not compatible with vb4. It's not something you can suppress.

So I have good news. I went through a list of quite a lot of hosts, but it seems Bluehost is one of the most popular so I opened a live chat.

Will you continue to support PHP5 versions? I am looking to migrate from DreamHost as they are ending PHP5 support completely in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately my forum software is entirely dependent on the older PHP version. I use a VPS with DreamHost.

[11:02:19 AM]Manasa Puttur:Yes, we support the PHP version 5.4, 4.6 and higher version 7
[11:03:46 AM]Manasa Puttur:Even 5.2 version is also supported.
[11:04:21 AM]Me:Will you continue to support 5.4 for the foreseeable future? Of course this is important if I'm going to choose you as the new home for my site. I wouldn't want to have to jump ship to another host soon after. My forum is currently on 5.6 at DreamHost, but I think the other PHP5 versions should behave.
[11:06:00 AM]Manasa Puttur:Yes, we do continue supporting 5.4 version.
[11:06:34 AM]Me:Okay, thanks.
[11:06:43 AM]Manasa Puttur: You're welcome. Is there anything else I may assist you today?
[11:06:55 AM]Me:I heard HostGator is owned by the same company. So would their answer be the same as yours?
[11:08:01 AM]Manasa Puttur:I understand PHP is very important for the website so we always support the PHP from 5.2 version because each website is compatible with different versions.
[11:08:35 AM]Manasa Puttur:Yes, HostGator is owned by our company. Regarding the PHP version in HostGator I will confirm with specialist and will let you know.
[11:13:55 AM]Manasa Puttur:I have checked with specialist and they assisted PHP 5 is supported. But to get more information regarding this, you have to contact HostGator support since the server settings are different from Bluehost.

So I also talked to a HostGator agent. The answer was mostly the same. He mentioned that the PHP version I use on DreamHost (5.6) is supported there. I never got a clear answer to that from Bluehost, though they did say "from 5.2", so I guess so. The HostGator agent also said that while he doesn't have any exact time, they will support PHP5 versions for "a very long time".

I decided to send a message to Hostinger too. They don't have live chat so I'll eventually get an e-mail reply. So it seems that a lot of popular hosts will continue to support older PHP versions despite them being EOL. Which is really what I need if Hostboard's suggestion doesn't work so well with my customised vBulletin setup. I probably don't have the time to fiddle with that anyway if DreamHost is going to pull the plug in a couple of weeks.

Edit: I got a response from Hostinger. It was just: "Currently we do not have any plans to end PHP 5 versions support."
Those are three options already to choose from, then. It's a shame I'm having to move the hosting from DreamHost as I've been a customer for 13 years.